During Shadow Play’s exceptional racing career Dr. Ian Moore called the pacer one of the toughest horses he had ever worked with, so when the stallion’s first crop of Ontario yearlings went on the auction block last fall the Guelph resident was willing to invest some money.
Moore and his partners purchased four Shadow Play offspring and the horseman admits they were outside their comfort zone when it came to Arthur Blue Chip, a $135,000 acquisition at the Harrisburg Yearling Sale.
“Our ownership group had never paid over $50,000 for one until last year,” explains Moore. “But Serge (Savard) has three new partners from Quebec in on him — there’s six of us — so it’s not bad.”
Moore, St. Bruno, QC resident Savard and Gail and Ron McLellan’s R G McGroup Ltd. of Bathurst, NB campaigned Shadow Play during his $1.5 million career (2007-09) and are part of the Shadow One Stable formed to acquire Arthur Blue Chip. Joining the longtime partners under the Shadow One banner are Rick Andreoli of Lachine, QC, and Jonathan Besner and Diane Deslauriers of Montreal, QC. The group also acquired Shadow Play son High Flier, who is competing on the Grassroots circuit.
“It’s fun for me, having trained Shadow Play, now getting to train his babies,” says Moore. “We’ve had four since last fall — Arthur looks like the best one — and it’s been a lot of fun.”
Shadow Play’s offspring are off to an impressive start, recording nine wins, five seconds and eight thirds in Gold and Grassroots competition and posting earnings of $361,325, putting him at the top of the ranks of Ontario pacing stallions. In the North American rankings Shadow Play sits second, just behind Somebeachsomewhere, a horse he also battled on the racetrack.
Arthur Blue Chip has done his share to contribute to his sire’s early success, capturing a division of the season opening Gold Series event at Mohawk Racetrack on June 28 and finishing a boxed-in sixth in a division of the second leg at Mohawk on July 8. Those two efforts earned the youngster third spot in the two-year-old pacing colt standings and on Friday, July 19 he will be back at Mohawk to take on the division’s stars in the $150,000 Mid-Summer Challenge.
“He’s just getting better every day, basically,” says Moore of the half-brother to $1.5 million winner Kenneth J. “He trained real good all winter, he’s a beautifully gaited colt, but he’s kind of on the lazy side. He’s always gone wherever we wanted to go with him, but he’s never been real flashy about it.”
Arthur Blue Chip and Milton resident Randy Waples will take on the top colts from Post 1 in Friday’s Mid-Summer Challenge, slated as Race 7, and most of his owners will be on hand to see how he measures up against Ontario’s best.
“Most of the Quebec partners will be here tomorrow (Friday),” notes Moore. “They’ve never seen the horse before.”
Moore says Arthur Blue Chip trained well on Tuesday and seems to be over a rash that had been troubling him in recent weeks, so the trainer is hoping for a peak performance from the youngster.
The two-year-old pacing colts square off in Race 3 for the $50,000 Mid-Summer Consolation and Race 7 for the $150,000 Challenge, while the two-year-old pacing fillies compete for Consolation honours in Race 2 and the Challenge title in Race 5. Post time for Mohawk Racetrack’s first race on Friday evening is 7:25 p.m.
To view the harness racing entries for Friday at Mohawk, click the following link: Friday Entries - Mohawk Racetrack.
(OSS)